


Clipped Wings

by magicasen



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, New Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Civil War (Marvel), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7049224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicasen/pseuds/magicasen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: [616/Crossover] - When Tony goes to see Steve in his cell before his trial, he finds a different Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clipped Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [I'll Be There](http://illbetherestonyfest.tumblr.com) Steve/Tony prompt fest!

The prisoner snaps his eyes up the instant the door opens. His eyes glint under the harsh lighting of his cell.

Tony hangs back to observe him. From this distance, Tony and the two agents flanking him shouldn't be visible to anyone sitting in the cell. Good on SHIELD-designed holding cells.

He looks...surprisingly healthy. Even the supersoldier serum shouldn't recover so quickly from close quarters combat with a super in one of the most advanced pieces of weaponry in the world. Tony's immediately on edge when he steps forward, and for good reason.

Because when Steve spots Tony, the impossible happens. His expression softens, and he smiles in bright disbelief.

“Oh, thank god you're here,” he sighs. “I – “ he frowns down at his restraints, and the handcuffs jangle when he tests them. “Was it mind control? I can't remember a thing. Usually I can fight it off if I'm conscious, but everything's blank.” His face is startlingly vulnerable; it unnerves Tony. “It's good you were able to restrain me. I don't want to think what I could have done to you or the – ” His head jerks up, eyes frantically running over the armor, like he could determine the extent of Tony's injuries through it. “You're not hurt, are you?”

It's the most Tony has heard Steve speak in the weeks since he went rogue.

“...Excuse me?”

That stops Steve, only for him to stare uncomprehendingly.

“Leave us,” Tony tells the agents.

“But – ”

“Five minutes,” Tony concedes. “Any longer, you can barge in here and use whatever means necessary to get him back under custody.”

They both look at the other. “We'll have to inform Hill,” one offers.

“Do whatever makes you feel better, but right now, just _get out._ ” That rids the room of them quickly enough.

When they're alone, Steve offers him an abashed smile. “You should have signaled me. Sorry if I said too much. I'm not sure what's going on, but good call on getting them out – ”

Tony raises his hands to his helmet, ordering the catches undone and lifting it over his head. It makes him miss Steve's reaction, because when he looks again, it's like the man has seen a ghost. His skin is pale, his eyes and mouth are wide open, and he's completely, utterly still.

Finally, Steve's lips move soundlessly. It looks like a name, but if it is, it's not _Tony._

“Shit,” Tony says with more feeling than he's felt in days. 

He curses every god, Christian, Roman, Asgardian, that he can recall. This man isn't Steve Rogers, or, rather, he isn't  _their_ Steve Rogers. There's no sign of recognition from him; he doesn't know who Tony is. Whatever world he's from, Tony must not exist. Good for him.

Tony's swear shakes Steve – Rogers, out of his shock. His expression isn't quite  _saw a ghost_ anymore _,_ but it's not far – his eyes don't leave Tony, like there's something inherently riveting about Tony capturing his attention. 

He must be on the Avengers, or some version of them. Mind control isn't something you run into down side alleyways in shady neighborhoods, plus he'd recognized the armor.

A world where Tony isn't Iron Man...?

Rogers opens his mouth a few times, failing to get words out.

“Who did that to you?” he finally asks.

Tony raises a hand to rest his fingers gingerly against the deep bruising around his eye. He can still feel the blunt impact of the shield's edge smashing into the faceplate, again and again, and resists flinching.

“You're kidding me, right?” Why does he care, anyway? He doesn't even know who Tony is. 

“It looks serious,” Rogers says. Oh, _now_ his tone is full of that irritating Captain America conviction, always making the obvious and trite sound more important than they really were. “It's recent, isn't it? That's the type of injury where you don't want to be up and around for a few days after, at least.” His eyes linger, incessant with worry, and Tony feels a surge of indignation. 

“Well, you would know now, wouldn't you?” 

It's Rogers who flinches. His head's down, body curled in, like he needs to get away from Tony. The atmosphere is so tense Tony doesn't even want to breathe, choosing only to listen to to Rogers's harsh breathing.

Rogers looks up, then, and this is closer to the Steve Rogers Tony remembers of late. No, Tony has to admit. Steve has never looked at him like that, not even when they were fighting to kill each other. The intensity of Rogers's glare is enough to stop a man in his tracks. He's shaking with barely restrained fury. If he wasn't restrained, Tony thinks he might have sprung on him.

(It's just what Tony deserves, another Steve Rogers to hate him.)

“So that's how it is. I didn't want to believe it, but I've met your kind before.” Rogers' voice is hard, but brittle. “You twisted people from some alternate universe, trying to take everyone else down with you. I remember there's no point in offering you mercy. You're nothing like the real you.” His voice cracks, and he bites down on his lip, frustrated at himself for slipping. He's so goddamn _open,_ it pisses Tony off _._

“What 'real' me? I know those alternate universes as well as you do, and I haven't seen one without another version of me. What about _your_ Earth, where you don't even know who Tony Stark is?” 

_Tony Stark?_ Rogers mouths. His eyes dart around the room. “We're on the Helicarrier, aren't we? How did you manage to take control of it? What did you do to the Avengers?” Tony doesn't answer, and Rogers raises his voice, the handcuffs clinking when he rears up. “What did you do to her?” 

It has to be the question forefront on Rogers's mind, and Tony frowns, thinking of who in the world could be so important when the man's locked up in a hostile environment. “Carter? She's set to accompany you to your arraignment tomorrow.” Ugh, not  _his_ arraignment. This wasn't the Steve Rogers who had committed treason against his nation. How was he going to explain this one? 

Tony thought of his answer as a small mercy, a  _damn it all I have to get him back to his actual universe and I should at least attempt to get him to trust me,_ but the words make Rogers even more furious.

“Don't play dumb. You of all people know I'd never buy it.” He looks up, and Tony sees him swallow. His voice wavers. “Whatever you did to her – you know, we're expecting. Even to _you_ , that has to mean something, right?” 

Tony stares at him blankly. “Expecting what? What the hell are you talking about?”

That's it. Rogers's face crumbles, a wall beneath a sledgehammer. Without his defenses, he's lost and alone. It's so obvious. What's wrong with him, that he's so easily shaken by Tony? Tony tries to occupy himself with that thought, anything besides  _I did that to him. I hurt him, and I don't even know how._

He's faintly made aware that Rogers is shifting awkwardly, like he's reaching for something behind him. The chair is bolted to the floor, and he shouldn't be able to get to Tony, separated by the cell wall.

Tony's heart is pounding as he opens the cell and steps through. Rogers rears back up, and oh, he's back to glaring now.

Tony circles around the chair, glancing at the wall behind him. Nothing out of the ordinary, to him or to Extremis. He looks back at Rogers, instead.

There's a glint of metal on his hand.

“What...?” 

It's not in his grip, and Tony keeps staring, puzzling how it's staying put before he realizes it's because it's on Rogers's finger.

His left ring finger. Fuck. Tony tries not to let the awful, bitter taste bubble up past his throat.

No wonder he's demanding after her. Whoever she is, she's his  _wife._

He tries to think past it, think logically. Prisoners weren't allowed personal effects. If Mrs. Rogers's (his stomach drops at the thought) one of those SHIELD agents Steve is so fond of, then the ring itself might be usable as a weapon. It'd explain why he was so intent on reaching it.

(Tony is an  _asshole._ ) 

Tony reaches for him, only the armor keeping his hands steady. The rest of him feels like he might vibrate out of his skin, driven by an ugly mix of shock and guilt and jealousy.

Rogers realizes what he's trying, and suddenly he's a caged animal, fiercely struggling, desperately flailing his hands so that Tony can't have a chance of getting where he wants.

“Don't _touch it,”_ he roars, and Tony is seized still for an instant by the possibility that he could actually break free of his adamantium restraints. 

“Who is it?” Tony asks, grabbing his left hand and locking the gauntlet in place as he slips the ring off with the other. He lets go and steps back, his prize between his fingers.

Rogers stops, like a puppet with its strings cut. He sags in his chair with no sign of struggle.

When Tony holds the ring up, he looks over his shoulder at Tony, eyes suspiciously bright, but for the moment, he's just an afterthought.

It's a simple yellow gold ring on the surface. But – Tony tilts it – the inside of the band is largely inset with bright red coral. He scans it, but Extremis doesn't detect anything past the metal alloy and gemstone. It's entirely innocuous. The most Tony can say for it is that it's very expensive.

He pauses. There's an inscription on the inside, in the stretch of gold not taken up by red.

`Heartrate exceeding normal parameters.`

_To my Winghead. May we soar to new skies together._

`Heartrate not detected. `

The ring clatters to the floor. Rogers doesn't react to the sound. There's a sullen, unwanted victory in his glower. “You want to know who it is?” He laughs, voice too high and weak; the sound echoes off the walls.

“You.” 

**Author's Note:**

> The crossover universe here is Earth-3490, aka that one world where Captain America and Iron Woman (Natasha Stark) get married to prevent the Civil War.


End file.
